The Return of Sound Money

[helmuth_hubener]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Announcing:

One hundred percent.

Pure.

Gold.

I was going to wait until April 19th for sentimental and symbolic reasons, but.... why wait?

I am the owner and founder of a start-up that for the past year and a half has been in stealth mode. What is it, you ask? We have built a system that allows you to spend gold at any merchant that accepts Visa.

Huh, you say?

A gold-backed debit card.

Get it?

Your balance is in ounces.

You can pay anyone. You don't have to convince them to accept gold. You don't have to explain to them of the virtues of sound money. You just pay them. Magic happens. They get dollars.

https://Midas.gold

I have been using the system in its various prototypes and versions for a couple years now. There are still bugs to be worked out, to be sure, but fundamentally it works.

Check it out and let me know if you're interested.

 

[Origanalist]

I still haven't used the card you sent me Helmuth, sorry. :o I just have been real busy. I just dug up the card and authorization code, going there now.

 

[Origanalist]

Ouch, getting the connection is not private warning.

 

[kfarnan]

How do you know it really exists in a vault.? Still another middle man.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

Ouch, getting the connection is not private warning.

Ahh. Just a slight SSL glitch (SSL can be tricky). Thanks for letting me know. I should have it resolved within 24 hours.

In the meantime, for just reading up on it I have enabled http://Midas.gold/intro . So, interested RPFers may go there.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

Ouch, getting the connection is not private warning.

OK, problem solved! Try it again and you should get no warning.

 

[phill4paul]

Electric ducats are not "sound money." IMHO. A bird in the hand beats two in the bush.

 

[wizardwatson]

Helmuth, you might be interested.

You are one of the few still on the right topic, imo.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...-last-official-business-thread-Metric-Reserve

Shameless cross-thread promotion.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

Helmuth, you might be interested.

You are one of the few still on the right topic, imo.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...-last-official-business-thread-Metric-Reserve

Shameless cross-thread promotion.

Thanks, Wizard.

 

[presence]

Can I fund a gold backed card with bitcoin?
Did you ever make any progress on a bitcoin backed card?

 

[helmuth_hubener]

Can I fund a gold backed card with bitcoin?
Did you ever make any progress on a bitcoin backed card?

I would be OK with accepting bitcoin to fund the card.

I do know exactly how I could make a bitcoin-backed card. I have it planned out and it will not be very hard. The framework I have built will allow, in theory, any of a variety of backing commodities to be used. I just figured I would release the gold-backed card first and then add other options (bitcoin, silver, others) once it takes off and becomes popular.

But, maybe I am wrong. Maybe bitcoin would be a bigger market.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

How do you know it really exists in a vault.? Still another middle man.

Electric ducats are not "sound money." IMHO. A bird in the hand beats two in the bush.

Guys, I don't have any disagreement with you. You are right, so far as in what you're talking about. Storage security is a complex issue. If you feel more comfortable about the risks of keeping gold in your house than the risks of keeping it in someone else's vault, then that is by all means the better option for you as far as secure gold storage.

At the same time, I do hope you'll try to understand what Midas is.

What I've created is something different.

You can already buy and hoard gold. That's not anything new. What Midas is for is if you want to be able to use your gold as money.

What the Midas Liquid Gold Card lets you do is spend your gold. At any merchant that accepts Visa.

That's all! Nothing much. It just lets you use gold as money.

If you do not want to use gold as money, then it isn't really solving any problem for you, right? And so is probably not for you.

Thank you very much for taking a look at it and for your feedback!

 

[presence]

I would be OK with accepting bitcoin to fund the card.

What spot rate?
What fees?
Min / Max transfer size?
How long before the balance appears?

 

[helmuth_hubener]

What spot rate?

Google's. https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+spot+rate

What fees?

No fee.

Min / Max transfer size?

For the beta test, let's make it max $500 (so about 4/10 of a bitcoin). No minimum.

How long before the balance appears?

Well, first we'd have to set you up with an account and get a card. In this beta-testing mode, that will take a while.

Once you're set up, though, it will appear as soon as we receive the funds. So, in the case of a bitcoin funding, probably within a couple hours. Certainly within a business day.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

OK, well, any other interest?

 

[PierzStyx]

Electric ducats are not "sound money." IMHO. A bird in the hand beats two in the bush.

Yeah, the whole point is what you end up holding, not the process you go through to get there. If I'm left holding dollars in the end, there isn't much of a point. And if teh system crashes someone else holding my gold doesn't help me at all.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

Yeah, the whole point is what you end up holding, not the process you go through to get there. If I'm left holding dollars in the end, there isn't much of a point.

Thank you, Pierz. I see now I have a LOOONG way to go before I can be said to have explained how Midas works in a easy-to-understand way.

Because, with Midas, you are not holding dollars. You are holding gold.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

OK, here's another way to understand it:

Let's say you are a customer of a bank or credit union (You probably are! So not too much imagination required.). Your bank helps you handle your financial affairs more easily. You have an account, and you have a debit card linked to that account with which you can make purchases.

Wouldn't it be nice if that bank was run under the principle of 100% reserve? Rather than making fraudulent loans and thus creating money out of thin air? I think most of us would agree that it would be. That would be a big improvement. If there were a bank that switched over to being run like that, boy oh boy, wouldn't that be great?

Now, what if this 100% reserve bank then decided that keeping 100% reserve in terms of dollars was not good enough? It goes one step further and becomes a 100% gold reserve bank. All accounts are backed 100% by gold. Backed by, denominated in, and convertible to. Wow, that would be even better!

Ahh well, that's a beautiful dream, but only a dream. Right?

Except.... now it's not. Now it's real. It's built.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

[MENTION=198]angelatc[/MENTION], [MENTION=1874]Brian4Liberty[/MENTION], [MENTION=2785]undergroundrr[/MENTION], [MENTION=10908]dannno[/MENTION], [MENTION=6186]Danke[/MENTION], [MENTION=849]jmdrake[/MENTION], anybody seen this thread?

I think I needed a better thread title.

 

[Danke]

@angelatc, @Brian4Liberty, @undergroundrr, @dannno, @Danke, @jmdrake, anybody seen this thread?

I think I needed a better thread title.

I will look into it, but the link says I am not invited. "private beta testing "